The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-02-20
THE HORSE EXCHANGE"
VISIT TO A NEW YORK MARKET FOR
BROKEN DOWN HORSES.
biggest Bargains of the ge"-The
Dealers Favorite and the Customers
Bane-Fixing Up Worn Out Hacks-va-
rious Tricks of the Trade.

rious Tricks of the Trade.
The Horse Exchange on Broadway and
the sales stables on Twenty fourth street are
well known to all New Workers who have
any knowledge of horsefiesh. But away up
in Workable at the foot of east Seventy
fourth street there is place where horses
are bought, sold and exchanged which nine
tenths of these knowing New YOrkes never
heard of. But every peddler who is rich
enough to afford a horse, every farmer
within a radius OF twenty-five miles of New
York and every fourth rate horse dealer has
been there, and with the exception of the
class last mentioned few care to go there a
second time.
This peculiar institution is known as the
Horse Market. \ more appropriate title
for it would be: "A market for broken down
horses, y for that is really what it is, although
the astute men who run it will never ac-
knowledge the fact.
Between and 3 O'Clock in the afternoon
the market is to be seen at its best. \
stranger coming there then might well inn
agine himself in a lunatic asylum. The
auctioneer is no longer regarded. Every
dealer is then an auctiOneer, albeit without a
license, and goes from group to group shout
ing:
biggest bargain Of the age. True Ham
bletOnian blood Trots mile in >. 30. Name
your price"
Horses that can hardly pull pound are
seen by some magic influence, trotting like
race horses. Horses with all kinds and sorts
of diseases which, i'll the whirl and confusion,
are concealed; horses with hoofs half eaten
away; horses whose thighs seem out of joint
blind horses; horses that are worn out from
old age; dozens and dozens of horses, but
not sound one in the whole lot.
THE DEALERS DUMMY"
= =
dealers favorite and the customers bane
In the vernacular of the horse market he is
termed dummy" The relevancy of the
word Is not apparent. He has what are
called "on'' and off days. One day he is
as brisk and fiery a horse one would wish
to speed up the boulevard on a day when the
high flyers out. The next day he may
be unable to pull pound or stand up in his
harness, or may give up the ghost altogether.
His disease is incurable yet when he is i'll
good spirits he is fine looking animal and
an expert might be fooled by him. 1t is no
wonder, therefore, that the average buyer is
deceived in him. There are many other
good looking horses sold at the market, but
as the reporter was privately assured by a
dealer, who acted as his guide not one of
them is worth taking away.
As the reporter and the artist We're stand
ing on the outskirts of the busy .hrong a
Say, mister, y he said to the reporter,
whose apparent greenness h al evidently i'm
pressed him, ''do you see that horse over
thar
Following the direction of the mans finger
the reporter saw what appeared to be a
spirited bay horse. \ typical jockey was
riding him around To show his good points,
while the owner was haranguing large
crowd
I'll 81, IL
man, confdentially. Il know that horse
from way back. He's good un. He's
got blood in him, that horse has, an know
it. Now, the man wOt owns him an is on
bad SoOtins- We had a quarrel some time
ago about little bargin an so / don't want
ter bid on i'm. But if you kin buy him fur
1915 I'll give ye an even $500 for i'm. Wot
dye say;"
The reporter excused himself on the ground
that he had no funds with him. and the man
went away Disguised
''Clear skin game, - said the guide. THAT
horse is n dummy. He may not live two
days. You pay your cash for him, and the
other fellow who said he'd buy him from
you never turns up. You never could catch
him, for you don't know his name, and if
you did he'd get a dozen witnesses to prove
an alibi for him"
TRANSPORTATION SCENE.
was locked, the guide paused and knocked in
a peculiar way on the door 1t was opened
and the party walked i'll. A wonderful
scene met their gaze. Bottles. buckets and
pals full of liquids and powders We're scat
tered everywhere. Three men with their
sleeves rolled up to their armpits were busy
doctoring number of sickly horses. 4
broken down hack was, in fifteen minutes
transformed into plunging, spirited horse
fax baC md
sold at ten times his value to an innocent
buyer.
Every horse sold i'll the market is ''doc-
tore,u' more or less, and the effect while it
lasts is remarkable. All the dealers are
adopts at the revivifying art, and can Fix
up IA horse in less time than it takes to tell.
y horse apparently sound was sold the
other day for 500 II IA farmer haiIing from
Long Island. The purchaser drove him up
the eastern Boulevard on his way to the
Ninety-ninth street ferry. Before he had
gone five blocks the horse began TO blow ter
ribly. He proved TO be "a wheezer,'i that
Is, short winded- When the farmer re-
turnel he could not find the man he had
bought of. The horse looked as though he
would not outlive the day.
IN give you - for him for his bones, ="
said an UncoUth red shirtcd horseman-
The farmer, fearing that his horse would
die on the journey. and just as fearful of
being guyed even if he did get him home
accepted the offer. The purchaser was the
partner of the dealer who first sold the horse
The animal put uni Ter the doctors
treatment and rcSold the same day to an
other unSuSpectIng farmer Tor $40
a cutSOm in general vogue among the
dealers Is To prove the strength of the horse
by showing his drawing power The wheels
of the wagon To which the horse is harnessed
are tied together - that they cannot revolve
Then the horse i forced To drag the wagon
with its load for about twenty -fiye feet
The test Il not particularly good one
The '-pCr~uadcr." which in horse market
parlance means man and whip. manages to
call for the animals latent powers in one
grand effort.
At rar,. intervals the dealers are them
| selves trickctl \ man will sell them a horse
and the same day the owner will appear and
l.lairn tLar Lis hind -rlI..r1 tn. LnrS..